Tutorial: Repurpose embroidery motifs from damaged vintage linens

Go to an estate sale or antique mall, and you’re likely to find at least one little collection of vintage embroidered linens. If they’re in good shape, they make beautiful accents for a vintage inspired decor. But there will also be linens with significant damage. Don’t turn your nose up just because they’re damaged. They’re just ready to be remade into something new.

Rebecca Ringquist rescues those embroidered motifs and repurposes them as decorations on new sewing projects. She appliques the motifs on to a new pillowcase. The embroidery is rescued, and you get the look of vintage hand embroidery on your piece! She shares a tutorial at We All Sew showing how she does it.

Click below for her tutorial:

Vintage Embroidery Applique Pillow Case, by Rebecca Ringquist

[photo from Rebecca Ringquist on We All Sew]

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I am just smitten with this felt gingerbread house bag. This would make such a sweet special Christmas accessory for a kid. It’s a free pattern at Benzie Design, designed by Gracie from Hello Gracie Makes. It’s packed with adorable gingerbread house details, like swirls and stripes and scallops adoring the doors and windows.

And while all those details might seem like this would be a complicated pattern, it’s actually not. The bag itself is made from felt, which makes finishes edges unnecessary. (All of those scalloped edges are just cut from felt, no edge finishing required.) The strap is super simple, made from rope with knotted ends. And all those details are made with some basic hand embroidery stitches. Sparkle felt makes it extra cute.

The striped scallop roof is actually the top flap of the bag. A magnetic snap makes it a secure closure. The rope straps are attached through felt loops at the side of the bag.

They rate this project as an intermediate level, and it should take about 6 hours to make start to finish. That’s doable for a Saturday project or a couple of evenings. Full color photos step you through the entire process.

The project includes a shopping list for all of your supplies. They’ve got a shop so you can order all of them from Benzie if you like and get exactly the supplies used in the project. I noticed it includes a pair of scallop shears, which makes cutting all the scalloped edges for the roof and around the door a breeze.

Finished dimensions of the little felt gingerbread bag are approximately 6 ½” wide x 7 ½” tall. That’s the perfect size to hold a small book, a small toy, or a notepad and some cute pens.

Go to Benzie Design to get the tutorial and free pattern for the felt gingerbread house bag.

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